Somali pirates attacked a ship 1,000 nautical miles east of Mogadishu on Monday. (Ht: @robcrilly) This sounds crazy, but you have to remember that the Somali pirates treat their activity as a business. When they get a significant ransom, the money that's left (after they pay their creditors and food & water suppliers, pay off local officials, and distribute resources in the community) gets reinvested into the business by buying better weapons and communications systems. For the last six months or so, they've also been acquiring better ships that allow their piracy to be less land-based. This makes total sense. (If you want to learn more and will be at African Studies Association next week, I'm presenting an early version of our paper on this topic there.)

What some students need to hear. I have stopped taking the "I really know the material; I just don't test well" excuse this year and (politely) saying that if you really know material, you can answer questions about it. It's working out well.